Living/working again in Iraq

Wow.... it's been a while since I posted on my blog. My apolozies to every one.
At the moment, I am living/working on Joint Base Balad (JBB) Iraq. As you may remember, I spent a year in Iraq in 2004/5. I'm with the same company ITT Industries doing the same job .. military communications. Only this time I am not down South (Camp Ceder II near Tallil) but up North about 80 miles north of Baghdad. I arrived here on 4March2010. I signed on for 1 year but I've been thinking of staying longer.
Before coming here... I tried my hand at starting up a copier sales/repair business. It lasted a whole 6months before I decided to pack it in. The business never made much money and I was getting deeper in debt. Ego.. here I am in Iraq.
Before the ill fated business... I worked for Dyn Marine Services. That was a fun job. In my next post I will tell ya'll about it. How working for Dyn Marine Services I got to return to shipboard life working in the communications room and going to the 4 corners for the earth.

I'm back posting on my blog

Hi everyone,
Wow... my last posting to my blog was 22Jul06. Well, I am back! In my next blog I will fill everyone in on what I have been doing since Jul06 and... what lies ahead for me.
Take care
Jim

Short 2 months off... now back at Saipan. What happened during my time off?

Wow... last posting saying how I made it back home to Jacksonville. Now this one is saying I just made it back to the ship located at Guam/Saipan.

During my 2 months off, I relaxed, visited with family and friends and planned some home improvements.

Myself, Natalie, Chiselle & Arnold and Lynn were all up at Arkansas for Dad's 82nd birthday. That was 9June. He looked great. Fay too. We all enjoyed being together again. Which doesn't happen all that often. I mean... the opportunity to all get together.

Sara, my 1st cousin, came to my place for a visit. Her first time to Florida. I took her sightseeing around Jacksonville and St. Augustine. I think she had a good time. I did. Sara has moved from Austin, Texas to Riverton, Wyoming. That is where her mom and dad, Ada & Arnie, are living. Sara is in the process of purchasing a house with 10 acres of land. She told me all about it and it all sounds great. I look forward to going up there for a visit once she is all situated.

Reggie, Natalie's younger brother, has moved from California to come live at my house and go to school full time. He has been accepted to the University of North Florida as a junior year student. Classes start I believe in September. Reggie had his 26th birthday on 22June.

Dominique, Natalie's older brother, came to the house twice. Once bringing the kids, DJ (9yrs) and Doresabelle (5yrs). Cute kids. The second time he came with is wife Dolo. They had just returned from spending a week in France on their belated honeymoon. Ten years belated. They spent time in Paris and Normandy and since they both speak French fluently, I am sure they had an amazing time there.

I have some home improvements that I am excited about. For sometime I had been wanting to get a landscape designer to design some easy to manage landscape around the house and to design a new backyard patio. Well, Tony Evans with 5Star Design has done that. In addition to the landscape work, I am also getting a 3 car garage built and Tony was instrumental in it's placement. Before I left to come here, I made all the arrangements to have all the work done. It's unfortunate I will not be there to see it all come together. However, Reggie will be there to assist if needed and to keep me up to date on it's progress. As I get pics from Reggie of the work, I'll put them on my BLOG for all to see. When I get back in Mid November, it will be like coming home to a new place. I am really excited about it.

Well, like I said in the beginning of this posting, I am back at Saipan. Left Jacksonville on 16July and arrived into Guam on the 17th. I was picked up at the airport by the detachment manager and taken to the ship. Same ship and same stateroom. Kinda feels like I never left. Everyone but one who I worked with before have transferred off either on vacation or to another ship.

Well, my next posting will bring you up to date since I have been on board.

Later

Back home in Jacksonville

Well, here I am back home. Feels great! Arrived here on 11May. The flight was better than most. I went on-line before hand and pick my own seats for the various legs of the flight.... Guam to Hawaii, Hawaii to Houston and Houston to Jacksonville. I didn't want to find myself in the middle seat between two sumo size people.

I found the house covered in leaves (I've got huge oak trees enveloping my property) and much to my happiness.... the house still standing. My neighbor, Matt, his son kept my yard mowed for me. I know the inside was ok cause I had my other neighbor, Ruth, check the inside last month. It is a real blessing to have good neighbors.

Fast forward to following weekend... I've got daughter Natalie and her boyfriend, Pedro and step-son Reggie here. Nice having a house full of family. Pedro had to go back to Panama City for work on Monday. Natalie and Reggie are staying until the end of the month. Reggie lives in San Diego and plans to return later this Summer to live at the house. He is a college student and has already been accepted to Jacksonville University and University of North Florida. Reggie has been wanting to come live closer to his family here in Florida. So...this arrangement will work out great for the both of us. He will live here in the house rent free (he pays utilities, cable, internet, etc.) in exchange for looking after the house while I am gone. (I am scheduled to leave again in July for 4 months.)

Closing now... Reggie just cooked us breakfast.... again. (smile)

Returning to Jacksonville on 11May

Hi all,

Wow... I started this "post" 10 days ago and never finished it. Lazy or too busy??? Oh yea right right... too busy. (; Let's see if I can hammer this out and get it published.

Well, my four month tour on the ship, MV 1st Lt. Jack Lummus, will end up being five months. Seems the head office needed me to stay a month longer due to personnel scheduling problems.

Some good news, I now have a flight reservation for my return back to the States. I will be arriving into Jacksonville on 11May. I am ready. There are no days off while on the ship. We are worked like slaves around here. Oh God when will it ever end???? We are fed fish heads and rice and they make us sleep on a bed of nails. And the worst part, they make us wear our underwear for a week at a time before we can change them. Nah... just kidding. ha ha The part about working 7 days a week is true though.

I have created a "To Do" list of things I want to accomplish during my two months vacation. Gives me something to do and think about during the quiet times. I did the same thing when I was in Iraq. I actually finished must of the things on my Iraq "To Do" list. A new driveway was one of the items. Got that done and it looks great. One of the things I would really like to do, when I get back, is hire a landscape designer and have my front and backyard (particularly the backyard) professionally landscaped. If you ever saw my property you would understand. And sense the only folks that have seem my house is Dad and Fay..... I would love to have you'll come visit me sometime.

Wish I had some new news about some off the ship adventures to tell ya. But there hasn't been any. Have been staying onboard the ship most the time. I did leave the ship a couple of time within the last month but that was only to have a couple of glasses of wine and relax a bit. No sightseeing involved. No Kodak moments. Oh, the pic above with the flag, palm trees and mountains...... I took that maybe a month ago. It was taken on the Navy base on Guam.

Well, I'm going to end this now. I promise to post a couple more before I leave here.

Cheers

Daughter's Birthday

My beautiful daughter, Natalie, turns 29 years old this month. Wow ! I am so very very proud of her. Natalie has brought much joy and meaning to my life. She is the reason why parents have children.

Happy Birthday Natalie
Love you

Spending time in Guam - short trip off base

Hi all. We are back at Guam again. Temp in the mid to high 80's. Nice weather for shorts and Ts.
Went ashore yesterday. Visited Andersen Air Force base. Mike, a co-worker, needed to go there to return an external hard drive that he had bought for his computer. He asked if I wanted to come along. Sure. Bennie, a friend and one of the Navy guys assigned to our ship, had a vehicle and offered to take Mike (us) to the base. From the Navy base to the Air Force base it took us 45 minutes. It's pretty much a straight shot.... follow the road straight out of the Naval Base main gate..... go x miles and then turn right to enter the Air Force base. Their AAFES store (military department store) has a nice selection of items. I checked out the DVD movies while Mike and Bennie returned the hard drive and picked out another one. I bought the movies "Underworld" and "Sin City" the other day. Both really good movies. If you haven't seen them yet, I recommend renting them. When we left the store I was empty handed and Mike had his new hard drive.

The time was around 6:00pm. I had to be back to the ship cause I had an 8 hour watch, 10:30pm to 06:30am to stand. The next water taxi to the ship was at 6:30pm and the one after that, 9:00pm. No chance of catching the 6:30pm one so we decided to get something to eat. Bennie knew of a Pizza Hut just down the road. After eating our large supreme with no mushroom pizza and bread sticks... sooooooo good! we still had time for a beer or two at a bar that Bennie just happen to know was next door to the Pizza Hut. Hmmmmmmmmm Strange how a sailor knows where all the bars are.

Since I had to go to work after we got back to the ship I limited my drinking to just a six pack. Ya right... I'm kidding. I just had one beer. Ok... I had two but that was it! So, a couple of beers... a couple of games of pool and it was time to go. Did I mention the two young bar maids with skimpy outfits and tattoos on the low low part of their backs? We made it back to the Naval base with time to spare to catch the 9:00pm water taxi back to the ship.

I had a nice, quite uneventful communications watch. After eating breakfast I went straight to bed.